Monocle’s editor in chief, Tyler Brûlé, discusses the weekend’s top stories with his guests. Topics include how the coronavirus outbreak is being felt in Switzerland, the UK and Japan. From Milan: Salone highlights, interviews and a daily running guide.
With questionable coronavirus content flooding airwaves and online channels, what’s being done to limit its impact?In this episode:
00:57 The epidemiology of misinformation
As the pandemic spreads, so does a tidal wave of misinformation and conspiracy theories. We discuss how researchers’ are tracking the spread of questionable content, and ways to limit its impact.
News: Anti-vaccine movement could undermine efforts to end coronavirus pandemic, researchers warn
Nature Video: Infodemic: Coronavirus and the fake news pandemic
17:55 One good thing
Our hosts pick out things that have made them smile in the last week, including walks in new places, an update on the Isolation Choir, and a very long music playlist.
Video: The Isolation Choir sing What a Wonderful World
Spotify: Beastie Boys Book Complete Songs
22:30 Funding fears for researchers
Scientists around the world are concerned about the impacts that the pandemic will have on their funding and research projects. We hear from two who face uncertainty, and get an update on the plans put in place by funding organisations to support their researchers.
An estimated 80 million people live with a neurodegenerative disease, with this number expected to double by 2050. Despite decades of research and billions in funding, there are no medications that can slow, much less stop, the progress of these diseases. The time to rethink degenerative brain disorders has come. With no biological boundaries between neurodegenerative diseases, illnesses such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s result from a large spectrum of biological abnormalities, hampering effective treatment.
Acclaimed neurologist Dr Alberto Espay and Parkinson’s advocate Benjamin Stecher present compelling evidence that these diseases should be targeted according to genetic and molecular signatures rather than clinical diagnoses. There is no Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, simply people with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. An incredibly important story never before told, Brain Fables is a wakeup call to the scientific community and society, explaining why we have no effective disease-modifying treatments, and how we can get back on track.
Understanding how the body clears the new coronavirus is becoming more important as the U.S. begins to reopen. WSJ’s Daniela Hernandez explains how the body fights infection and why feeling better doesn’t equal being virus-free.
Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann
Monocle 24 checks in on Switzerland’s plans to further ease coronavirus restrictions and ask whether the country is setting an example that others should follow.Plus: the weekend’s newspapers and top stories. From Milan: Salone highlights, interviews and a daily running guide.
From Oxford University Press – OUP (May 1, 2020):
…ultra-processed foods are generally the foods available to nurses working nightshifts, firefighters returning to their department after a call, police officers 
patrolling neighborhoods, or military soldiers during field-exercises. Thus, time-restricted eating removes the added stress of what to eat, and serves as a practical intervention conducive to the schedules of many people.
Time-restricted eating has been shown to lower circulating insulin, blood pressure, body fat and overall body weight, inflammation, and oxidative stress.
Time-restricted eating is a nutrition intervention which alternates between a period of fasting (12 – 16 hours) followed by a period of eating (8 – 12 hours). Unlike other diets, which focus on the caloric content of a meal or which foods you should eat, time-restricted eating focuses exclusively on when you eat by compressing and standardizing the feeding window each day. In turn, people following this type of eating pattern naturally enter a state of caloric deficit.
As states grapple with the question of when it will be safe to reopen businesses and relax social distancing, there’s increasing urgency to better understand who’s immune to Covid-19. Does having the virus and recovering mean you can’t get it again, or at least that you can’t be reinfected for some time?No one yet has good answers to these questions. Kristen V. Brown looked into what we do, and don’t, know about the science of coronavirus immunity.
